New Tech Standards & Requirements

All teachers should familiarize themselves with the tech standards in order to stay current and be able to take advantage of the benefits of technology. The first one that stood out to me as particularly important is "creativity and innovation". Technology offers many tools and means to create original products and projects. Teachers can take a traditional lesson, like letter writing, and use technology to reinvent it into letter writing using email. Students can reach a broader range of people, results are faster and multimedia (pictures, videos, etc) can be integrated. This example also fits in under "communication and collaboration". Computers allow for numerous communication opportunities, that otherwise may not be possible. I love the idea of using technology to learn about different cultures. Sister classrooms/schools is a great way to do this. Classroom websites and blogs are a quick and efficient way to reach parents and the outside community. I've had the opportunity to use Google docs a lot lately and really love the way my classmates and I are able to collaborate on various documents and projects.

Another standard I intend to focus on is "critical thinking, problem solving and decision making". I really like the idea of using the internet to research a current news issue and make an analysis to begin possible solutions. Thinking further, these solutions could be made into a podcast and published for everyone to hear or a collaborative research project presented with multimedia. Many students aren't exposed to newspapers and online journals and papers are a good way to introduce this genre to students.

The biggest challenge I imagine facing when implementing these standards is just the time I may have to spend teaching basic technology skills and introducing various tools. I also imagine technology problem solving may be time consuming as well. However, both of these are initial problems and with time and practice will decrease. One way I can further decrease the time spent learning and problem solving is by creating Screenr demos of the various applications and tools we will be learning. This way students can first watch a demo and their questions may be answered without having to contact the teacher.